Manchester City star Yaya Toure's boycott threat

YAYA TOURE has warned that black players and fans could boycott the 2018 World Cup finals if Russia fails to stamp out racist behaviour among fans.

Yaya Toure has warned black players could boycott the 2018 World Cup [EPA]

UEFA charged CSKA Moscow yesterday after Manchester City captain Toure was subjected to monkey chants and gestures during the Champions League match in the Khimki Arena on Wednesday.

CSKA face a disciplinary hearing next week and could face a closure of their stadium, but Toure says black players are ready to take action themselves by staying away from the World Cup in Russia.

Toure said: “Of course it is important that they need to sort it out before the World Cup. Otherwise we will not be confident of coming. We won’t come. People will not come.

“It’s a problem here, it happens all the time.”

City lodged a formal complaint to UEFA yesterday, but CSKA will challenge the charges and issued a statement which accused the English club and Toure of making up the claims, despite clear television evidence, both audio and visual.

It read: “Having carefully studied the video of the game, we found no racist insults from fans of CSKA. In many occasions fans booed and whistled to put pressure on rival players, but regardless of their race.

Bobby Barnes, the European president on the international players' union [GETTY]

It’s a problem here, it happens all the time

Yaya Toure

“Why the Ivorian midfielder took it as all being directed at him is not clear.”

CSKA also quoted their own Ivory Coast player, striker Seydou Doumbia, as saying he did not hear any racist abuse.

Doumbia said: “I didn’t hear anything like that from the CSKA fans. They are always noisy in supporting the team, but they wouldn’t ever allow themselves to come out with racist chants. So my Ivory Coast colleague is clearly exaggerating.”

Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan came in for criticism for failing to follow UEFA’s procedures and issue a stadium announcement warning that the chants must cease.

Bobby Barnes, who is European president on the international players’ union FIFPro, said: “We’re very disappointed that a clear agreed protocol designed to deal with these situations was not affected.”